


Birds of a Feather

by NanoCorn



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-28 05:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19387822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanoCorn/pseuds/NanoCorn
Summary: An unexpected visitor to an unusual bookstore.





	Birds of a Feather

It was an unusually cool spring evening. Suzunaan bookstore sat empty, as was typical for this time of year, with the exception of the young shopkeeper. Kosuzu Motoori was lazing around as per usual. She often spent cool evenings like this catching up with reading while under a blanket, her pages illuminated by the setting sun. Sorting the new book catalogue and dusting the shelves could always wait until tomorrow morning, after all. 

So of course it came as a mild shock when the little bell tied to the store door rang out, breaking the tranquility that had enveloped Kosuzu’s study. There was a customer, or perhaps just a visitor. Most people who came through these days didn’t seem interested in borrowing books so much as ogling the burgeoning collection itself. 

Kosuzu rose with a yawn, brushing off the dust that had collected on her checkered apron as she stood. Regardless of what their intention was in visiting, Kosuzu reasoned she’d at least show the courtesy to greet the visitor.

“Good evening!” Kosuzu called into the storefront, seemingly as empty as it usually was. She stepped into the sizable library and looked around for whoever had entered. The brief thought of a potential robber had crossed her mind, but she had forced that back. Who would want to steal from a book shop? Unless…

Her line of thought was halted when she finally spotted the diminutive figure of the visitor, already quietly perusing the bookshelf closest to the entrance. Kosuzu’s mind was put to ease noticing the visitor was about her own height. Hardly threatening.

“Ah, hello!” Kosuzu began, in her usual cheery attitude, “Welcome to Suzunaan! Make yourself at home!” 

The other girl remained silent, casting a wary glance Kosuzu’s direction. Kosuzu soon realized she wasn’t going to get a response from the customer, and simply resigned to the front desk, where she could keep an eye on the customer, and so they would know where to pay if they picked out a book. 

That was when Kosuzu began to notice the peculiarities of the guest. Try as she might, despite her attempts to keep her back turned away from Kosuzu, she could notice the faint outline of… something under her clothes. Same with her hat, strangely crumpled and seemingly not fitting at all on the head of the guest. The more Kosuzu looked at the stranger, the stranger she appeared to look. 

“Say, you know you don’t have to pretend to be human here, right?” Kosuzu inquired, scratching the back of her neck. She usually got the occasional youkai in the shop, but never one that seemed to be so interested in her normal stock of books. How odd.

The visitor seemed to be visibly startled by this, dropping the book she was inspecting. “H-huh?” She squeaked out in a much meeker voice than Kosuzu expected. “How did you know?”

“It’s really not hard to tell,” Kosuzu explained with a warm smile, “I get a lot of your type around these days. I just know.” She casually skirted around the fact she had the power to just know these things. Better to be left unexplained. 

“...Ah.” The visitor paused briefly, reaching for her hat, before stopping. “You don’t mind if I…” She trailed off.

“No, do whatever you want. As long as it doesn’t hurt me, of course.” Kosuzu was, admittedly, a little nervous. Despite dealing with plenty of youkai these days, she couldn’t quite suppress the slight anxiety that crept its way into her head.

The youkai removed her cap, revealing a mess of silver hair with odd blue highlights. Kosuzu also took note of the two horns poking out from her mess of hair, and the strange miniature red wing that sprouted from the left side of her head. “Um… Sorry if I’ve frightened you. Please don’t throw me out…” She gave Kosuzu a pitiful glance. 

Kosuzu couldn’t help but wonder who was really more afraid of who. She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.” She couldn’t really think of anything else to comfort the youkai.

The youkai gave a nervous laugh, and turned back to the bookshelf she was previously perusing. Kosuzu noted her wings were now sticking out, rather frazzled. 

“Say, I don’t get many visitors that are interested in my normal stock of books.” Kosuzu mused. “Are you sure you aren’t here to see the youma book collection?”

The youkai simply shook her head, and continued looking through the shelf of novels until she seemed to find a particular volume that caught her eye. Excited, she pulled the novel off the shelf, and briskly walked up to the curious human’s desk. “How much for this novel?”

Kosuzu took the book from the Youkai’s hands, and looked it over. “‘The Hobbit’, by J.R.R. Tolkein,” she read in carefully practiced English, “This will run you about 3500 yen. These import books aren’t cheap, after all.”

The youkai winced slightly, but took out a small pouch and placed the necessary amount on the desk. The pouch seemed a lot lighter now.

“Ah… Actually, if you want I can let you read it in the store for free…” Kosuzu isn’t quite sure why she made the offer. Normally such a thing would be against store rules, but it didn’t seem right to take the young youkai’s money. Besides, her powers were telling her this youkai was a kind person. She felt she could trust her.

Surprised, the youkai gave Kosuzu a warm smile. “Th-thank you.” She pocketed the coins and looked around the shop for a nice place to sit. She found herself in an old rickety chair in the corner of the room, visible from the desk at which Kosuzu sat. 

A comfortable silence set upon the room, the two girls lost in their reading. The bookstore really was an incredible place to read, with its placid and admittedly cozy atmosphere. The entire shop smelled of old paper and binding, making the two avid readers further at home. The sun setting cast a pleasant, albeit low light into the store. It was a bookworm’s paradise.

As the sun cast its final glow for the evening, the youkai approached the desk and handed the book back to Kosuzu. She had finished the whole novel in a little over an hour! Kosuzu duly noted the youkai’s reading abilities, and smiled up at her.

“Thank you for coming! Come again!” Kosuzu cheerily waved as the youkai approached the door.

The youkai paused for a moment, before stepping out into the now quiet village. She turned back to Kosuzu, a smile on her face. “Thank you for the opportunity to read, I’ve been… low on funds recently.” She gave a halfhearted laugh. “I don’t believe I caught your name, Miss Shopkeeper.”

“Kosuzu.”

“Tokiko. It was a pleasure meeting you Miss Kosuzu!” Tokiko stepped outside, and before Kosuzu could realize, she had taken off. 

Kosuzu couldn’t help but feel she would be seeing her again, not exactly a bad prospect, thinking about it. Akyuu was never around to discuss literature anyways, so to have a reading buddy, even if she was youkai, was a very welcome idea to her. Kosuzu sighed wistfully, getting out some candles from under her desk. The sun had set, but there was still so much reading to get done.


End file.
